07-09-2018

https://risu.org.ua/en/index/all_news/catholics/ugcc/72536/

On September 6-7, 2018 at 19:50 5 Kanal presents a documentary “Reefs Case”. The film covers the period from 1939 to 1963 and reveals the circumstances of the arrest, detention and release of the Greek Catholic Patriarch Iosyp Slipyy, unknown to the general public, the website of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church reports.

The documentary “Reefs Case” was shot in 2017. Its premiere screening took place in February 2017 in Patriarch Iosyp Slipyy's native village Zazdrist, Ternopil region on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of his birth. After that, the premieres were held in various cities of central, western, southern and eastern Ukraine, as well as in the following countries: Italy, Canada, USA, Argentina. The film has received many approvals from viewers. Now this film can be viewed by all those willing on 5 Kanal.

The film focuses particular attention on the historical events and prominent personalities of that period, their influence on the part of Patriarch Iosyp Slipyy. The film’s central figures were Pope John XXIII, US President John Kennedy, General Secretaries of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee Iosyp Stalin and Mykyta Khrushchev.

The film owes its name to Reefs Case, which is stored in the archives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The 33 volumes of the case documented in detail how the Soviet authorities worked out and implemented a plan for the destruction of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and its head, Iosyp Slipyy. These documents -- which the Soviet repressive system carefully collected and preserved -- became the basis of the documentary.

The film included testimony of participants and eyewitnesses of events, comments by historians from Ukraine, Italy, USA, unique cinema frames, which the crew searched for in Ukrainian and foreign cinema archives.